You made a good decision based on your chosen cruising grounds. For the San Blas Panama, Garmin blue charts are just as inaccurate as Navionics and CMap (but all of them are more accurate than the paper charts). But didn't you mean to say that you bought a product "that used Explorer charts", instead of a not buying a "product that uses Navionics charts"? There are products that use both (below).

We recently got a chartplotter for the first time. Up to now, we have been using computer charting via Nobletec, Coastal Explorer and OpenCPN. I must say, using even the most modern up-to-date chartplotters are like being stuck with a computer from 1983. They are cumbersome, bulky, slow, have horrible user interfaces and offer no flexibility. Even the newest touch screen wifi ones are like using an iPhone from hell. Picking one over another based on its performance and user interface is like choosing between a 1980's Commodore and Radio Shack computer - yes, one may be "better", but only if you ignore that you live in 21st century technology. These companies that make them must have never seen or used any of the current PC charting programs.

So we still don't use our chartplotter much (Furuno) - opting for the computer almost always. We bought it solely for the radar anyhow, as it replaced one damaged by lightning. It does accept both Navionics and CMap raster and vector charts and provides constantly updated US raster and vector charts for free and does support the Explorer charts (through CMap). But using it after years of good PC charting programs is so painful and frustrating.

Mark